Size: 2-4"'
Females are substantially larger than males. Females are capable of living
for over 20 years, males average approximately 4-5 years. Most spiders
exhibit significant
dimorphism.

RainForest Facts:
A
Tarantulas hairy covering actually has two separate functions. The first
function of the hairs is to sense air movement around the spider, this allows
the tarantula to both detect prey as well as warn the spider of potential
enemies! The hairs are called urticating hairs, sounds a lot like
irritating, and for good reason. Researchers have determined that there
are actually four different types of urticating hairs on the body of some
tarantuals.

The hairs will break off the abdomen and
irritate the skin of other animals, including humans. Tarantulas can
actually use their back legs to flick the hairs off their bodies and onto
potential enemies!

Each Tarantula leg is made up of seven
parts with two claws at the end and a tuft of hair for extra gripping power!
A
spider has eight eyes, they are very small and generally not very strong, the
spider rarely depends on it's eyesight. Huge fangs actually help hold the
prey item after the Tarantula has grabbed the food item. Each
tarantula leg is actually powered by over 30 muscle groups. Much like
other small creatures the spider is capable of easily lifting several times its
own body weight.

Most Tarantulas do not hunt by
building webs, they are generally more like a leopard or a cheetah, stalking
slowly on the ground the spider will quickly pounce on and hold their food item
while their powerful venom goes to work! In fact the tarantula
actually uses it eye sight very little to hunt, being almost exclusively
nocturnal the tarantula will actually use the darkest of night as the perfect
time to go out and find a meal.

There are even various types of
tarantulas that dwell in trees! The Pink Toe is a classic example of an
arboreal
tarantula. The Pink Toe will build it's nest under bark that may be
pulling away from damage on a tree limb or branch, under this bark the spider
will line the cavity with silk to create a safe, moist hiding place from which
to hunt bugs!

The Tarantula has the amazing ability to regenerate a leg.
In fact being closely related to crabs the best way to understand their
regenerative powers is to simply look at the practice of fishing for Stone Crabs
in Florida. Once the crab is caught the claw is broken off and the crab is
thrown back into the water. The damage causes the animal to shed it's
exoskeleton and and produce a new claw. The Tarantula can perform the same
magic feat!

So the next time you order crab legs off the menu just remember,
you are just eating a giant Tarantula!

Camouflage and concealment: Even though we may
consider the tarantula to be a giant spider the reality is each of the species
of spiders has to deal with much larger predators in their respective
environments. The central and south American Spiders typically are
on the dinner menu for the
Coatimundi, as a result the spider in
many cases wishes to hide, colors or pigments in the exoskeletons of certain
species allow them to blend into their backgrounds thus making them disappear in
plaint sight!

Do tarantulas bleed?

Tarantula blood is not like our own. Our blood contains
iron and of course is red in color. The tarantula actually has what
appears to be blue blood and contains copper instead of the iron found in our
own. We have hemoglobin that actually helps carry the oxygen throughout
our body to help power our muscles, the spider actually has hemocyanin and it is
much less efficient at moving the oxygen around the spiders body. Since
most spiders are not as active as humans and other mammals the lack of ability
to move the oxygen around is not an issue. But much like cold blooded
reptiles the spider is actually much more efficient at breathing when
temperatures are higher and their body consumes more oxygen.

What's In A Name?

Now That's a Big
Spider

Where you live will often times determine what you
call certain plants or animals.

While people in the United States have given the
name
Tarantula
to large, hairy spiders it is fun to learn that in places like Africa they
call them Baboon spiders, and in South America they are known as monkey
spiders!

For many thousands of years people have both feared
and revered the spider. Ancient peoples of Nazca, Peru in South
America created a drawing of a spider that was over 150 feet long!

Fossil records indicate that tarantulas have inhabited the earth
for nearly 300 million years. The very first of the giant spiders we know
as tarantulas appeared during the "Great Age of the Dinosaur" or the Mesozoic
era.

Status in Wild: Stable, however
continued pressure may result in a serious decline in wild populations.
This spider is still imported in very large numbers for the pet trade.
Captive breeding of this species of Tarantula is rare given the inexpensive cost
of wild caught animals.